The Future Is Now: Dr Rahul Kushwah On How Predictmedix’s Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene
Shared success — The growth of any startup is not the success of an individual or a founder, but it is the success shared amongst all the team members who were willing to take the risk to come onboard early and work towards the same vision. The team needs to be composed of individuals that can work together. As the company grows, the onus falls upon the entrepreneur to ensure that the success is shared among all the team members.
As a part of our series about cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Rahul Kushwah.
Dr. Rahul Kushwah is an accomplished biomedical scientist and the COO, Co-founder of Predictmedix (CSE: PMED) (OTCQB: PMEDF). He has a proven track record in translational research with several peer-reviewed publications along with superior communication skills with over 50 medical and scientific presentations. Prior to launching Predictmedix, Dr. Kushwah held appointments as a Federal Government Scientist, Research Officer within the Human Health Therapeutics branch of National Research Council of Canada along with Professorship within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He completed his doctoral research at the University of Toronto and the world-renowned Hospital for Sick Children and was also one of the 23 worldwide recipients in 2012 of the prestigious Banting Fellowship for health research awarded by the Government of Canada.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
During my academic career in the medical research world, one of the things that I got to see firsthand was that the problems being researched within the academic/medical community were most of the times not the ones that had an association with immediate world problems. The advancements in data science / machine learning / artificial intelligence / neural networks have been profound over the past decade, but they have not made their way into core medical research.
My aim was to bridge the gap amongst healthcare, medicine and AI, while ensuring that there are real world problems being solved. This laid the foundations of Predictmedix, where we have developed an AI powered solution which without a need for biological fluid or without touching an individual can identify their vital parameters, can identify if they are fatigued or if they are impaired under the influence of substances such as alcohol or cannabis. Moreover, the technology has been proven in multiple clinical trials encompassing over 2000 participants in different parts of the world. The technology has an utility as a fit for duty screen in the workplace but at the same time as a healthcare triage solution which can impact health care all over the world
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I suppose the most interesting story must be the one where I made the switch from being a biomedical scientist at the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada to becoming an entrepreneur. During my tenure as a biomedical scientist with the NRC, I was leading a team that was focused on developing immunotherapy-based treatments for cancer and at the same time, I was able to gain funding for practically all the projects that I was leading. It was a unique juncture as several of the projects that I was leading also had industrial partners and we were also working with multi-disciplinary teams.
I was quick to realize that although in the medical research community we have had several breakthroughs over the years, unfortunately over 99 percent of them have not translated into discoveries that impact healthcare. It was at that stage that I knew that I wanted to do something that could make a difference to the real world, outside of a lab setting. I wanted to extend myself beyond the world of publishing research articles in peer-reviewed medical journals to developing solutions which help people. I was not completely clear on what I wanted to do but I did know that I wanted to do something that has a real impact on the world. A few weeks later, I was visiting my parents back in Toronto and a mutual friend introduced me to Sheldon Kales, who is the CEO and co-founder of Predictmedix — and the rest is history.
Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?
For the last several years, we’ve been working on novel AI-powered ways to screen individuals. First, it started off screening people for symptoms of infectious diseases like Covid-19. We then realized through a lot of clinical testing, that we had the capability to also screen individuals for signs of impairment from cannabis and/or alcohol. We’ve had huge success in clinical trials, hospital and university studies by third-party independent groups that tested the accuracy of our AI-powered technology. We’ve also developed algorithms to detect if an individual is suffering from extreme fatigue. Imagine industries where workers’ personal safety and life depend on their own attentiveness and energy mental and physical energy levels — think mining, manufacturing, military ops, pilots, truck drivers, and other high-risk industries. The fact that Safe Entry has the ability to non-invasively screen for that is a game changer for industries and people worldwide. And lastly, our healthcare vertical, where Safe Entry Stations will be situated inside Hospital Traiges to collect key vitals like heart rate, respiratory rate, and temperature from patients autonomously. Nurses and accompanying staff will then have that information handy — eliminating the need for them to manually take incoming patients’ vitals and ultimately reducing the load on hospital staff. There are of course many more benefits that Safe Entry has in Healthcare — but you get the gist.
How do you think this might change the world?
AI is here to stay and the fact is — it just makes sense. Why not use technology to better our world, systems, and lifestyle? AI can change the world by automating tasks, improving healthcare, enhancing education, addressing environmental challenges, and providing businesses with insights and predictions to make more informed decisions.
Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks of this technology that people should think more deeply about?
The one that we deal with all the time is that people perceive our technology as being a big brother that is monitoring people, tracking them, etc. However, it is important to understand that we are not using any personal identifiers or any face recognition, instead the AI is analyzing the data captured from multispectral cameras and voice and correlating it with underlying physiology to identify vital signs, impairment or signs of fatigue. Additionally, there is no data storage at all on our systems and it is only the log of actual events which we have access to (i.e. at 12:00pm, there was a green light). This completely limits any possibility of our technology acting as a big brother as even in a setting where someone hacks into our technology, they will not be able to find any personal data.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
At the many events Safe Entry was deployed at when we were exclusively screening for infectious diseases like Covid-19, executives in industries of all kinds would approach us and tell us how helpful it would be to have this at their organization, to not only screen for Covid but also for impairment. Our team began working on that which then led to creating our Fit for Duty screening solutions for workforces around the world.
What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
We’re making fantastic progress in many countries, with government organizations and large enterprises beginning to adapt our solutions. It’s just a matter of time before your readers will encounter a Safe Entry Station.
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
We have been a part of many trade shows in different industries demonstrating Safe Entry, as well as events and other very incredible placements. Moreover, with independent clinical validation done at several sites globally, the third party institutions are becoming the cheerleaders for our technology and they are the ones taking it to the government officials.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I would say that it has to be my dad, Rajendra Kushwah. He is a CPA with an accounting practice in Toronto and as long as I can remember, he has always encouraged me to follow my dreams as long as the dreams are not about money. He has a strong belief that if you give your 100 percent and excel at what you do — the monetary success will follow you.
Prior to starting my undergraduate studies, I got accepted into some of the top North American Engineering Universities with fellowships covering my entire tuition. However, prior to starting my studies, I had a change of heart as I became extremely intrigued by genetic engineering and how it can pave the path to eliminating diseases (albeit, Jurassic Park — the movie, being the reason to what pushed me into biomedical sciences). I told my dad about it and immediately his take was that as long as I am sure that I want to go in that direction and am willing to give it my 100 percent then I should go for it. This became the premise of my biomedical career where I went on to become a Banting Fellow and eventually a scientist, research officer at the Human Health Therapeutics branch of the National Research Council of Canada with a cross-appointment at the University of Ottawa. It was the multi-disciplinary work I was involved in along with parallel developments that I saw happening in AI that paved the way towards the birth of Predictmedix and made me take the leap from being a biomedical scientist to becoming an entrepreneur.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
We take immense pride in our technology as not only it is addressing an immense need with a massive global value proposition, but at the same time its helping the world. Impairment carries a massive burden globally and we have a solution which can detect impairment in seconds without using biological fluids. Similarly, when you look at healthcare on a global scale, one of the biggest bottlenecks in triage where you literally have to spend 15–30 minutes per patient to gather their vitals. Now we have a solution which can do that in seconds and all the patient has to do is stand in front of it for a few seconds and the data is read and transmitted in real time to the healthcare practitioner.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Partnerships — As an entrepreneur, it is not feasible to take care of everything by yourself or have your team members do the same. It is critical to forge partnerships with organizations and corporations that share a similar mandate and can be of assistance growing together. For instance, at Predictmedix, we have partnered with several top medical institutes all over the world that are playing a critical role in not only providing us with the clinical data that we need to improve our technology, but also in performing third-party validation, which is critical for business growth and technology certification in healthcare.
- Shared success — The growth of any startup is not the success of an individual or a founder, but it is the success shared amongst all the team members who were willing to take the risk to come onboard early and work towards the same vision. The team needs to be composed of individuals that can work together. As the company grows, the onus falls upon the entrepreneur to ensure that the success is shared among all the team members.
- Learn to use the soft skills gained from previous work experiences and education — I started off as a biomedical scientist and now I am a founder of a tech company, which although is in healthcare, a majority of it is based on machine learning, AI and neural networks. I am not applying my expertise in immunology or stem cells but what I am applying at Predictmedix is my ability as a researcher to work with multi-disciplinary teams to solve problems, to critically assess data and come up with solutions to problems that are in healthcare.
- Tenacity — Although you need the skillset to launch your startup, what you need even more is determination and confidence to move forward. You need to become the person who is ready to accept challenges daily with the determination that you will overcome them.
- Enjoy the journey — The growth of a startup is a roller coaster ride and one must learn to enjoy it. On any given day you have no idea on what it will bring, it could be a new contract, a new partnership, a new idea, a frustrated customer or perhaps glitches with the product. You need to be able to extract the most out of it and at the end of the day be grateful, confident and happy at how things panned out and how you addressed it. Even more important is to make sure that when you wake up the next morning, you do not dread the day but instead look forward to how it will unfold. The growth of a startup has its ups and downs, but one must learn how to enjoy the journey.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I think on a global scale it boils down to bringing education and learning to the masses. In several parts of the world, education still remains out of reach for the masses and by educating one person, it is not only changing that person’s life but it transcends through generations. Education should be a basic right that needs to be brought to the masses all over the world where gender, society , economic status should not be a discriminating factor. AI is going to play a big role on a global scale as people in developing countries have access to mobile devices and this is where AI tools such as AI tutors can play a role in bringing education to masses.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
One of my favorite quotes comes from Steve Jobs :
“I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”
It hasnt been an easy journey for me from academia to starting predictmedix from scratch and definitely there were times of self doubt as the technology we envisioned did feel like science fiction as we knew we would be the first ones if we could get it done. The entire team at Predictmedix focused on this single goal and moved full steam ahead with perseverance and now we finally have developed perhaps what I can call the only product of its kind which addresses a global need and at the same time has been clinically validated in different parts of the world.
Some very well-known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)
Understand the potential that AI has in healthcare and crucial industries we depend on every day — and invest in those companies that are making an impact and at the forefront of those industries. At Predictmedix we have developed an AI driven solution which hits every vertical one can imagine and the technology has been completely derisked by independent third party clinical validation. The technology can be used as a fit for duty screen at workplace or as a triage solution in healthcare where without the need for biological fluids, the person can be screened in a matter of seconds.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
https://twitter.com/Predictmedix
https://www.instagram.com/predictmedix/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/predictmedix/
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
